Mysterious Clownfish Disapearances

[1entra]

LOL Its ok n3ont3tra, Shame I dont know morse code though, it might really be trying to make contact with me

 

[chrissaysyes]

two clicks means "Feed me more clownfish!"

 

[1entra]

Over 5hours I've been sat here with the red light on waiting for some sight of the shrimp, even put a boiled salted prawn in... heard a lot of clicking... seen nothing! prawn lays untouched!

Whatever is in there really is one smart ar$e mo-fo clicking away at my misfortunes...

...But I will get the last click!

 

[suzygti]

Over 5hours I've been sat here with the red light on waiting for some sight of the shrimp, even put a boiled salted prawn in... heard a lot of clicking... seen nothing! prawn lays untouched!

Whatever is in there really is one smart ar$e mo-fo clicking away at my misfortunes...

...But I will get the last click!

aw 1entra are you still up looking for the shrimp?

i asked my fella how we got rid of our pistol shrimp and he said we took tank apart. i cant remeber coz it was a while back now. if its any consolation we never saw ours either. bet ya if you leave the tank now the prawn will be gone by morning. ill see if i can find any useful info out tommorrow as i will be popping into LFS.

 

[1entra]

Thank you suzi as all help is appreciated in helping me rid my tank of my nemesis!

I'm just about given up on seeing it tonight although I still hear the occasional click! 2 snails are happily muching on the prawn as I'm typing this!

Think I'l call it a night and get off to bed now!

Really had high hopes of at least catching a glimpse of the little clicker!

 

[dilbert]

I read up somewhere that to observe the life in your tank at night, it is best to do so using a red light by applying some sort of transparant red pastic in front of a flashlight/torch as they can not see it or something along them lines..? well anyways I went and bought myself a red lightblulb today and attached it to my bedlamp which I have attached to the top of my tank so the red light is shining directly into the aquarim in the hope my "predator" will emerge and I will see it for the first time ever!

I also read this and bought a red bulb ... a 60 W red nightlight for children ... anyway, it serves my purposes and only with that light I see small worms coming out of their holes. All other dimmed light doesn't work but that powerful red light does.

 

[chrissaysyes]

This is pretty ghetto but if you have a laptop, you can open up MS Paint or Photoshop and fill your screen with a giant bright red image. Set the laptop in front of the tank and viola. Hey, it works.

 

[SkiFletch]

Lol Chris, nice solution

Just an FYI, the reason red light works is because marine animals have no reason to see red light, therefore evolution has never given them the ability. After just a few feet of depth, red wavelengths are washed out of any sunlight that enters the water in the wild. Next are orange and yellow. Green can make it decently far down, but by the time you get to the depth of most reefs ~40-60ft or deeper, the only wavelengths that are really left are blue and purple.

Good luck 1entra

 

[1entra]

Thanks for the info ski and liking you idea chris, wish you have mentioned it earlier as it would have saved me buying a red bulb but never mind!

I wasted a full evening sat next to my tank to find nothing come out so wernt in the best of moods. Even the prawn was still there this morning and non of the hermits even bothered going anywhere near it! Only the odd snail decided to come over to have a taste!

Is there any other way of being able to see what I am dealing with in the tank? I really am considering doing another 2 dips, one in super high salinity saltwater followed immediately by a magnesium dip as recommended by ski!

If these dont work then I will go and buy myself a dragon wrasse I think! You sure one would easily be able to tackle a mantis as I do not want it to also disapear?!

 

[SkiFletch]

Oh yeah, dragon or coris wrasses will get the little bugger. May take them a couple weeks, but they'll most likely hunt it down, whatever it is.

 

[Lynden]

I'm still not fully convinced there even is a predator. It seems to me that if there was it would have taken your shrimp and snails out.

 

[n3ont3tra]

I would try a dragon wrasse now. If it dies, they it's not a predator.

 

[1entra]

I'm still not fully convinced there even is a predator. It seems to me that if there was it would have taken your shrimp and snails out.

I really wish there aint a predator but what could be making the clicking sounds then? They are only heard at night!

My shrimp died about a week ago due to an internal black spot it formed in its chest area and you said it may be black spot disease that ends on mortality 100% of the time... and you were right!

Oh yeah, dragon or coris wrasses will get the little bugger. May take them a couple weeks, but they'll most likely hunt it down, whatever it is.

By the way say I was to get a wrasse then how would I know it had taken out the predator as I still have never seen what it is???
Should I just put the wrasse in the tank and leave it in there for a month or so? Also what size wrasse would I need to take out the predator, adult, juvenile?

 

[Lynden]

I would try to get a small adult. Easy to do as the colour schemes are quite different from babies to adults.

 

[chrissaysyes]

Man I cant wait to see this thing if you ever catch it